


I thought you were no ser

by Miss_Black91



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Hiding, Masks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 07:56:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13632024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Black91/pseuds/Miss_Black91
Summary: He sees Sansa’s way of faking, she is faking the whole time. She doesn’t care about Joffrey, and he hates having to see her putting on her mask the whole day, living with it to a point that one day she may not be able to take it off.





	I thought you were no ser

Sandor knows exactly how that stupid brat is (or at least he thinks he knows), but this kind of situations still overwhelm him sometimes, and also help him on his idea of “never have children, never, ever, ever”. Even knowing how Joffrey is, even knowing that he  _ is _ Joffrey and that he comes with all kinds of circumstances, he is still surprised when the kid behaves… Like a brat, like he always does, really. The brat is a stupid shithead with everyone around him, his own mother included (and Sandor won’t defend Cersei, but if Joffrey should be thankful to someone, that’s the Queen, the only one who can still love the asshole, the only one who can still be strong enough to believe that there’s anything good in him.) 

He sees Sansa’s way of faking, she is faking the whole time. She doesn’t care about Joffrey, and he hates having to see her putting on her mask the whole day, living with it to a point that one day she may not be able to take it off. Well… Hates it? Nah, not so much, he doesn’t care so much about the little bird. She’s just a kid. A kid that has to fake that she cares about that stupid brat, because if she doesn’t do it, there may be harsh consequences. She may be hurt. And she may be hurt badly. Like her dad was. 

The thing is that the kid is a good liar, and he shouldn’t be surprised that Joffrey hasn’t realised about how  _ good  _ Sansa is, or maybe the thing is that Joffrey doesn’t even care, and then it would be true that Joffrey is really as stupid as he looks. He doesn’t even care about Joffrey anymore (did he care about him at any point? Was there a moment in which he did care about Joffrey? He’s a dog, he’s always been a dog, and dogs follow orders).  _ The kid doesn’t deserve her,  _ he thinks, without letting emotion hit his face, not even a little bit. But as soon as he thinks it, he regrets it. He shouldn’t think like this. He’s a dog, not a knight. But he cares about Sansa, even knowing that he shouldn’t care, and that it doesn’t really matter if he cares or not. 

“Hey, Dog,”, Joffrey calls him. They have been walking in the gardens for a while now, Cersei thought that it was a good idea. And then he can see what he has been imagining for a while now. “Take Sansa to her room, she’s tired of walking, and I’m sick of dealing with her” he says, and he walks away fast. Sandor looks quickly at Sansa’s face, but he can’t read her expression. He fucking can’t. Damn masked kid. 

“Your Grace”, bows Sansa as Joffrey leaves, her expression unreadable. She turns to Sandor and they walk next to each other, in complete silence (thank the Seven for small mercies) to her rooms. The Hound refuses to speak, as in his head he’s having an argument about the fact that he’s no kids clown, and he doesn’t need to go around entertaining kids. And Sansa doesn’t seem to want to make conversation just yet. He’s sure that the kid is still terrified about his presence, but she doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t want her to be scared of him. The world can be scared of him, that’s okay, that’s good, but he doesn’t want  _ her  _ to be scared. 

Well, maybe it’s better like that. 

The walk is terribly long. It’s not a long distance, actually, but the silence is deep and it rests on his shoulders. He wants her to ask questions, she should speak about stupid tales and stories, those knights bullshits that she used to believe in. Now she doesn’t speak about that anymore. She walks in silence, her eyes like steel, her face motionless. She doesn’t seem to believe in heroes anymore, they have destroyed the spirit of that dreamy princess that he met the first day. She had trusted them. She had loved Joffrey. She had trusted Cersei. And they had paid her love and trust with her father’s head. They put the little bird in a cage, and by doing so, they killed it.  _ Did they?  _

“Thank you” she says as they get to her room. Her voice would seem still to anyone, but Sandor can hear a slight tremble on it. Is it fear? Is it something else? She didn’t call him  _ ser  _ this time. He’s no knight, though, he made that very clear for her more than once. Why should he be worried about that? He’ll never be a knight. And why should she say  _ thank you _ ? He has done what he was asked. Why is she thanking him? Is it because he walked her? Is it something else? Why is he so confused? He tries to walk away and leave it be, but human impulses are hard to control, even for men like him. 

“No ‘ _ ser _ ’ this time, little bird?” he answers, without being able to stop himself. And then, he sees it. A small smile. He has tried to make his voice rough and tough, but it must’ve been softer that he intended it to be. The smile has been there for half a second and has been almost invisible, but damn, he has seen it. As he sees it in her eyes, deep down, there, a little spark that he only sees when she’s alone, or she thinks that she’s alone. (Not that he spends a lot of time following her around to make sure that she’s alright and that Joffrey is not tormenting her, or that he hasn’t asked someone else to torment her, and not that he takes that time to observe all the changes in her face, every little expression. Not that he cares about her, not even a little bit, not even for a second. Absolutely not.)

“I thought you were no ser,” she answers, and he can’t believe it. That must’ve been the first time in months that Sansa has spoken freely, and it has been with him. Is he becoming way too soft? He has to control himself, he has to be tough, he has to be scary, because if Joffrey discovers everything that he is thinking, what is going on in his head… If Joffrey discovers that he is trying to help Sansa, that he is trying to protect her as much as he can, then they both can he in trouble. He needs to take distance, he can’t be so close, or he’ll get burnt. Yes, he needs control. Control is the answer. 

But his brain goes one way and he goes another, as he takes her little hand and, with almost softness (almost, we’re not going to lie, he doesn’t want to be completely soft, he is not that kind of man, come on) but with a dry expression on his face, he plants a kiss on it. He doesn’t know what he’s doing and it may be the first time in his whole life that he does it because he wants to, and not because he has to do it in front of a master. It’s probably the time that he will be closer to her, and he hopes that his memory won’t betray him, and that it will help him remember this. The kiss is worth it just to see her shocked face, as if someone had dropped a jar of cold water on her. It has been so worth it. Her hand smells amazingly well. 

The strange thing is, though, that she doesn’t seem to hate it. She doesn’t seem to be disgusted. She is just shocked, as if he had discovered her a big awesome secret, her eyes open looking at him straight. Sandor won’t admit it and his face won’t ever betray him, but he is slightly scared, he was expecting her to be absolutely offended by his action, so without changing his dry expression and before his brain betrays him, he walks away fast. 

Several seconds after, she can hear Sansa finally closing the door, and only then, he breathes again. And then a thought comes to his mind. He hasn’t seen Sansa actually, really smiling in months, maybe even more than that. A full, complete, real smile, from her eyes to her mouth, her whole face and body smiling. He loved to see that. He can still remember her face smiling and he considers it a crime that someone who tries to kill that smile is still breathing, and even worse, that is wearing a crown. It can be his next mission, his new objective. To see her smiling once again. To free the little bird and protect it with his life. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I liked writing it!


End file.
